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lasers,” came the reply and then a pause. “Or something like that. I read it. It doesn’t really matter what they’re called; it’s untested you see. When Marie Curie discovered radium everyone was using it as glow in the dark toothpaste. They didn’t know that they were killing themselves with radioactivity. So we’re having no microwaves running through the house, not until a whole generation has lived to tell the tale.”
    “A whole generation?”
    “You’re too precious to lose just so we can eat hot beans in thirty seconds.”
    She had finally flipped, and on the day that Kathy and Brady were going to do it, too. The plan came back to Kathy as she listened to her mum and she remembered that she had to keep her onside. “Sounds reasonable,” she concluded when her mum had finished talking.
    Mum stopped washing up and turned to her daughter. She scanned Kathy’s expression of support, searching it for cracks, then pulled a kind of jib and nod, satisfied that her daughter was seeing things her way.
    “That was lovely, Mum. Thank you,” Kathy said, munching on the last of the cereal and grabbing her bag again while she pushed her chair out and shuffled upwards. If she was going to convince her mum of her plan it needed to appear inconsequential. She grabbed her coat and threw it over her bag. It was too hot for a coat, but her mum made her take it. “I’ll see you later,” she said, making her way to the door and knew that Mum would be right behind her.
    “You’ve got everything?”
    “Yes, Mum.”
    “You’ve done your homework and got money in case anything bad happens to you?”
    This no longer sounded weird to Kathy. “Yes, Mum.”
    “Okay, call me at lunchtime and let me know that you’re okay.” By now she was pulling at Kathy’s lapels to give her more protection from the non-existent cold before giving her the hug of her life: a hug that Kathy could carry around with her as evidence of how much her mum loved her, just in case it was the last chance her mum got to show her.
    “Will do,” Kathy smiled and she was halfway down the path when she turned back to her mum, who was almost in tears at the daily ritual. “Mum, I forgot to mention that Brady asked if I could sleep over tonight. I know you don’t like me going out, but it’s only Brady and I’m not going out at all over the weekend.”
    Mum flushed and then seemed to swallow back something horrible before answering. “Okay,” she said, surprising both of them. “I’ll call Clara this morning and if I’m happy that she can look after you well enough then it’s fine. I’ll let you know at lunchtime.”
    This was going to be embarrassing. Kathy’s mum had more dos and don’ts for a prospective carer of her thirteen-year-old that a first-time mother of a new born, but Kathy was happy to suck it up if it gave her a night of freedom. Why couldn’t she be more like Brady’s mum, Clara?
    “Okay, thanks,” said Kathy, shaking off all of her concerns and focussing on her victory. “I’ll call you at lunch.”
    When lunchtime came, Kathy and Brady were the first out of the school gates, beating the queue for the phone box, which was usually formed of girls in the upper years of the school making their daily calls to their older, mechanic or brickie boyfriends called Dave or Mike or something equally manly. Kathy slipped into the box, ignoring the unseemly aroma from the puddle on the floor and the receiver itself and dialled the number while Brady waited anxiously outside, kicking at the dusty, dried-up puddle bowls in the ground and looking to her friend every few seconds. Kathy maintained a serious demeanour so her mum wouldn’t suspect foul play and because she loved to see Brady’s suffering impatience. But after a conversation that lasted no longer than a few minutes, a smile burst on her face and she gave Brady a thumbs-up. They were actually going to do this.
     

Chapter 5
    It wasn’t the kind of deception that